Mapping Opportunities to Increase Productivity in Coastal Bangladesh

The Ganges Basin Development Challenge (GBDC) Program of the CGIAR Challenge Program for Water and Food is focusing on improving livelihoods and increasing productivity sustainably in the coastal polder zone, and has developed and tested innovative cropping systems and water management practices suited to the local conditions.Before a new cropping system can be recommended, it is important to identify its “extrapolation domain,” which determines where it could be successful

Integrated Landscape Approach: Closing the Gap between Theory and Application

Recently, the integrated landscape approach has gained increasing interest of the scientific community, as well as of organizations active in the field of sustainable development. However, the enthusiastic welcome is challenged by little consensus on theory, terminology and definitions. Moreover, the operationalization of the approach into practice is a major challenge. In this paper, we present a framework to operationalize the integrated landscape approach in practice by putting a long-term collaboration between scientists and various stakeholder at center stage. Based on encompassing understanding of landscape-level processes and interactions, four pillars addressing different steps of a joint-learning circle are described and illustrated with examples. We consider the integrated landscape approach to be a prime way of targeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but novel forms of collaboration between scientists and other stakeholders based on long-term commitments will be needed for operationalization in practice

Application of Generalized Hukuhara derivative approach in an economic production quantity model with partial trade credit policy under fuzzy environment

In this present study, a production inventory model with partial trade credit is formulated and solved in fuzzy environment via Generalized Hukuhara derivative approach. To capture the market, a supplier offers a trade credit period to its retailers. Due to this facility, retailer also offers a partial trade credit period to his/her customer to boost the demand of the item. In practical life situation, demands are generally dependent upon time. Constant demand of an item varies time to time. In this vague situation, demands are taken as time dependent, where its constant part is taken as Left Right - type fuzzy number. In this paper, Generalized Hukuhara derivative approach is used to solve the fuzzy inventory model. Four different cases are considered by using Generalized Hukuhara-(i) differentiability and Generalized Hukuhara-(ii) differentiability. The objective of this paper is to find out the optimal time so as the total inventory cost is minimum. Finally the model is solved by generalized reduced gradient method. The proposed model and technique are illustrated by numerical examples. Some sensitivity analyses both in tabular and graphical forms are presented and the effects of minimum cost with respect to various inventory parameters are discussed

Optical detection of submicromolar levels of nitro explosives by a submicron sized metal-organic phosphor material

Two isomorphous submicron sized metal-organic network compounds, Y-2(PDA)(3)(H2O)1]center dot 2H(2)O (PDA = 1,4-phenylenediacetate), 1 and Y1.8Tb0.2(PDA)(3)(H2O)1]center dot 2H(2)O, Tb@1 have been synthesized by employing solvent assisted liquid grinding followed by heating at 180 degrees C for 1' min and washing with water. Single crystal X-ray data of bulk 1 confirmed a three dimensional porous structure. The structure and morphology of 1 and Tb@1 were systematically characterized by PXRD, TGA, DSC, IR, SEM and EDX analysis. Dehydrated Tb@1 Tb@1'] shows a high intense visible green emission upon exposure to UV light. The green emission of Tb@1' was used for the detection of nitro explosives, such as 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP), 1,3-dinitro benzene (DNB), 2,4-dinitro toluene (DNT), nitro benzene (NB), and 4-nitro toluene (NT) in acetonitrile. The results show that the emission intensity of dehydrated Tb@1' can be quenched by all the nitro analytes used in the present work. Remarkably, Tb@1' exhibited a high efficiency for TNP, DNB and DNT detection with K-SV K-SV = quenching constant based on linear Stern-Volmer plot] values of 70 920, 44 000 and 35 430 M-1, respectively, which are the highest values amongst known metal-organic materials. Using this material submicromolar level (equivalent to 0.18 ppm), a detection of nitro explosives has been achieved